Discussion of the O. J. Simpson Murder Trial Is On-Line as Well as on the Air

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Hard to believe, but there are some people who cannot get enough information about the O. J. Simpson murder trial from newspapers, magazines, television, books and radio. The Internet and other computer-based on-line information services are emerging as global repositories of trial news and trivia:

*What was the name of Nicole's dog? (No, not Plaintive Wail or Bloody Paws, but Kato, after O. J.'s house guest, Kato Kaelin. The dog now lives on the Simpson compound and has been renamed Satchmo.)

*Is there a conspiracy in the news media to frame O. J.?

*Does CNN offer gavel-to-gavel television coverage of the trial for a businessman traveling in Europe? ("What's with you?" an unsympathtic reader responded. "C'mon, get a life!")

*And why, hawk-eyed Internet users asked, did Judge Lance A. Ito suddenly stop using a Toshiba laptop computer and switch to an I.B.M. Thinkpad? Is he using it to tap into the Internet to get information about the trial?

Thousands of people are doing just that. Scores of O. J.-related data bases, interactive discussion forums and electronic mail lists have opened in cyberspace since last June, when Mr. Simpson was charged with killing his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald L. Goldman.

Commentators in the news media have already dubbed the Simpson case "The Trial of the Century." But judging from the role of information technology in these proceedings -- not only in the courtroom, with its giant Sony video monitor and laptop computers, but in millions of homes and offices from Toledo to Taiwan -- the Simpson case might be more accurately described as the first trial of the digital century.

In fact, the technological devices loom so large in the courtroom that Judge Ito's office has received complaints that the trial is providing free promotions for Sony, Toshiba and I.B.M. Since then some of the equipment has been altered to make the brand names less prominent.

The interactive nature of the Internet and other computer networks allows people around the globe to retrieve hourly news feeds, follow daily court transcripts, dissect the American legal system, study and debate the finer points of DNA analysis and propose and attack various theories about the crime.

"Several people conducted their own ice cream melting experiments, because of the information that partly melted Ben & Jerry's ice cream was found at Nicole's condominium," said C. J. Morris of Thousand Oaks, Calif., a regular participant in an electronic forum that logs more han 200 messages a day. "And these experiments were done precisely and scientifically, right down to using the same type of container and the same flavor of ice cream that Nicole allegedly bought on the night of the murders."

Unfortunately for Mr. Simpson, these virtual jurors and judges appear to have already reached their verdicts, posted as collections of on-line comments with subject lines like "Guilty as Sin," which is next to one called "Guilty But Will Walk on a Technicality." Far fewer are the subject lines that suggest Mr. Simpson is not guilty, like "Planting the Glove" and "Another Setup Theory."

O. J. headlines and "chat" areas are available on most of the major commercial on-line services. Compuserve advises its 2.6 million subscribers that "if you can't arrange your schedule to watch all the trial coverage, we'll have daily updates."

Prodigy, with 1.2 million subscribers, already has 20,000 O.J.-related messages in its data base.

On America On-line, with 1.5 million subscribers, an O. J. forum in the "Court TV" section is abuzz with armchair analysts.

Anyone with access to a personal computer, a modem and a telephone line can be a Robert Shapiro, a Marcia Clark, a Lance Ito, or a Geraldo.

"We are as up to date as the lawyers themselves are," said Jack Walraven, who distributes court transcripts and other Simpson-related data to a global audience from his Internet computer in Victoria, B.C. "Because we have access to all the information, it makes for intelligent discussions."

Well, sometimes.

When the defense said it would produce a witness who would testify that she saw four men near the scene of the crime, a Seattle woman who subscribes to the America On-line forum was quick to note: "This woman who turns up to testify to seeing FOUR MEN -- coincidence that it sounds just like FUHR-MAN?" She seemed to be suggesting a conspiracy theory involving the defense and the prosecution, which has scheduled as a witness a Los Angeles police detective, Mark Fuhrman. The defense calls Mr. Fuhrman a racist and has suggested he may have planted a bloody glove at Mr. Simpson's Brentwood estate.

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With the click of a computer mouse, one can gain access to complete collections of Simpson jokes and lawyer jokes, not to mention Simpson cartoons and doctored photographs of dubious taste. No one even remotely associated with the trial escapes electronic scrutiny.

Debating the trial in cyberspace has become so popular that people even log on to the O. J. forums to express their contempt for people who log on to the O. J. forums.

"This is ridicously to spend this much time and $ on someone is totally guilty in some way if not at all," one person messaged. Reflecting the egalitarianism of the net, the message drew praise, scorn and a note earnestly criticizing the writer's syntax and spelling.

On Compuserve each Sunday, subscribers can pose questions about the case directly to legal experts.

Rather than rely on conventional news organizations for information and analysis, the computer networks allow anyone to be a reporter, commentator or publisher.

"I started hunting all over the Internet for the grand jury transcript," Mr. Walraven said. When he finally found an electronic copy, "I figured, it doesn't cost anything to post it on the Internet, so why not make it available to everyone? It was basically an act of good will."

It was not Mr. Walraven's only act of good will. Last month, he harnessed the Internet for British Columbia's large Japanese community to help reunite nearly 30 families and friends separated by the Kobe earthquake. But he is less known for that act of cyber-heroism than he is for the O. J. archives.

Mr. Walraven said more than 10,000 people, mainly from North America but also from Asia and Europe, have retrieved files from his Simpson data base, and there are at least a dozen similar sites on the global computer web.

"I am currently in France for the next several months and am upset that I will not be able to see the live broadcast," G. Eckl wrote to the O. J. discussion group on Usenet, requesting information on where to get court transcripts.

"Try ftp site islandnet.com/Jack Walraven/OJ-stuff," responded Alice J. Murphy of Fairbanks, Alaska. Asked by electronic mail why she spent so much time in the O. J. forums, she responded in similar fashion.

"The best way to get at the truth is to read the official court transcripts on the net, including the grand jury testimony, the preliminary hearing, the judge's rulings and the actual trial testimony," wrote Ms. Murphy, a Brooklyn native who now lists Internet surfing as her favorite sport. "Of course, one of the reasons I have time to do this is because there isn't that much to do up here in the winter."

The O. J. mania in cyberspace has also been fueled by Internet's World Wide Web, which allows advanced Internet users to navigate easily through text files, photographs, sound files and even video clips. One area on the web, as it is called, allows visitors to view, over and over, a video clip of Mr. Simpson pleading not guilty at his arraignment.

Time Inc. offers "O. J. Central" on the Web, complete with diagrams of the crime scene, photographs of the principal participants and articles extracted from Time, People and Vibe magazines, Mr. Simpson's book "I Want to Tell You," the Court TV network and NBC News.

Walter Isaacson, Time Warner's editor of new media, said the web site that includes "O. J. Central" was "getting up to a million hits a week," a hit being an instance when someone taps into the service.

A version of this article appears in print on February 14, 1995, on Page A00015 of the National edition with the headline: Discussion of the O. J. Simpson Murder Trial Is On-Line as Well as on the Air. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe